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Learning by playing

Colombian school­teacher Javier González is fighting illiteracy with a board game.

Photo: Javier González

Javier González, a schoolteacher in rural Colombia, regularly lost at dominos. González was surprised, not because he was a champion player but because the people who defeated him were the illiterate parents of his young students. “I, the professor, an ‘educated’ person, was unable to defeat the logic of these players,” he recalls. Despite illiteracy, they “had great visual-motor memory; exercised their emotional intelligence; and knew how to make inferences, analyze information and draw conclusions. In other words, they had [everything] required for every type of learning.”

González turned his domino defeats into educational victories by devising Abcdespañol (“ABCs of Spanish”), a board game with puzzle pieces and workbooks through which players learn to associate images and words. The game also teaches the basics of spelling and grammar, so students can learn to read and write in as little as 90 to 120 hours. In addition to teaching language skills, Abcdespañol encourages teamwork and collaboration, skills González believes are critical to a good education. In the 25 years since Abcdespañol was released, more than 800,000 kids and adults have achieved literacy because of the game. González now also has Abcdelamatemática (“ABCs of math”) and more games in development.

Abcdespañol’s popularity continues to grow; it’s been adapted for Mayan Indian languages, and Portuguese and English versions are in the works. Why are González’s games so successful? “Because one learns by playing,” he says. “One learns by doing. One learns with love, with friendship, without fear and everyone moves forward at his or her own pace.”